SEC Bars Arizonan From Securities Industry

WASHINGTON (CN) - The SEC on Friday barred Arizona-based Barry Ziskin from the securities industry and censured his company Top Fund Management.

Ziskin, 60, and his company, both based in Mesa, "fail(ed) to follow the investment objectives of a stock mutual fund managed by his firm, leading to the fund's collapse," the SEC said in a statement accompanying its administrative sanctions and cease and desist order.

Ziskin bought speculative options instead of stocks, and his losses from trading and investors' requests for redemption cause the Z Seven Fund to collapse in December 2010, the SEC said.

"ZSF investors expected the fund to pursue capital appreciation by buying stocks, but TFM and Ziskin took the fund down a very different and disastrous path," an SEC spokesman said in the statement. "Mutual fund advisers who deviate from their fund's investment strategy and keep investors in the dark will be held accountable for their fraudulent actions."

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